Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

One thing to add:

Consider the possibility that the true embarrassment in the client dinner situation was not the card being declined, but the way you handled it.

My standard response when a card gets declined is "Oh, these banks are all so twitchy these days about 'unusual' spending. They must have locked my account over something I bought earlier today. Here, use this card instead." 99% of the time, that's exactly what happened, but even if it's not it saves face for everyone involved.

The waiter or clerk doesn't have to feel like the bearer of shameful news, anyone else in the vicinity doesn't have to feel tense about witnessing the incident, and you have nothing further to explain.

It's only embarrassing if you let it embarrass you.

To put it another away, emotions are not caused by the things that happen to you, but by your own thought processes about what happens.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

Very well said Conductor, as a previous waiter it was always foolish to me when people would get irate because of a declined card, just make up any damn excuse and move on to another card and continue your night! Cant tell you how many times Ive had to embarass people because they try to embarass me by saying it must be me the card works 100% and I must be a dumb#$% to not know how to use the card xD

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

My favorite when I worked in food service & retail was the "Did you swipe it again? Did you punch it in manually?"

No, I decided to have this conversation that will in all likelihood be tense and uncomfortable without trying some easier solutions first. What can I say, I'm a sadomasochist who likes to ruin the day of myself AND others.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

I do not have a Barclays card, but this has happened to me a few times with my Capital One card. I understand if I make $700 or $800 payments, the credit card company may want to take precautions, Most of the time they remove the hold after verifying information with my bank. I understand it is frustrating, but if you know that Barclays will hold your payments because of past experience, perhaps you should stop making such large payments so frequently. I would take the advice of the people on here who are trying to help you avoid this problem. Good luck either way!

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

I can understand any financial institution that loans someone money is taking a risk, but if I am such a risk, why did they increase my credit line from 1700 to 3500 after nine months of use. I must have been doing something right.

I am just trying to use my card and pay it back. I could care less if they close my account because as if right now I have 29.00 available credit and my card is useless.

I did not pay through my bank, as sugested here, because a customer service rep said the chances of a 2nd hold were very slim so i took a gamble on making another payment through their website and I lost the bet.

I know all of this is out of my hands, they will either do one of (3) things.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

I can understand any financial institution that loans someone money is taking a risk, but if I am such a risk, why did they increase my credit line from 1700 to 3500 after nine months of use. I must have been doing something right.

Just because you were doing something right, that doesn't mean you were doing everything right.

Sometimes a pretty girl goes home with a guy she met at a bar, even though he has bad garlic breath from the Olive Garden dinner he had earlier, because he's cute and has a nice smile and wasn't rude to her friends. That doesn't make him the world's greatest seducer, it just means he ticked enough positive boxes for her to look the other way in the short term.

It also doesn't mean she won't kick him out of bed if he didn't bring a condom. She'll take a small risk on the bad breath, but not THAT big a risk.

What I am sure they expected is that once they gave you the CLI, your spending would settle down and fit within what they calculated to be a reasonable level well below your CL. Now that instead you are continuing to push the envelope, they are looking at your past BK and going "Hmm...this guy seems to be repeating the spending patterns that got him into BK in the first place."

You seem to be in an awful hurry to be doing everything right. But you are recovering from a bankruptcy and there is no quick fix for that. It's a slow healing process that will require patience and discipline.

I was perplexed by the fact that you are cranking so much money through an Apple Financing card, which has no rewards apart from the 0% on Apple purchases. Then I realized why you are doing it: I suspect you are laboring under the misapprehension that the more money you crank through the card, the more profit they make. And the more profit they make, the faster they will upgrade you to better limits.

There's a fallacy in that logic, though, because their whole business is one of volatility. The volatility is in the fact that they are effectively in the business of making unsecured loans, over and over. They maximize their profits not by loaning as much money as possible, but by loaning as much money as possible with as little risk as possible. The marriage of the two principles is what matters - neither can stand alone.

If, say, since your CLI and for the next 6 months or so, you were to crank no more than $1700 per month through that card, and PIF with a single payment each month, then I am betting your next CLI at that point could be to a nice 8k, 9k, or even 10k.

If you continue in the way you are going, however, you may spend 2 or 3 times as much over the same 6 months, but that spend will come with all the signs of volatility. They will be wary of you, and if you get another CLI at all it is likely to be modest and disappointing.

There's a reason folks on this board often compare creditors to sleeping bears or lions. The way to behave with them is tread lightly and seem as non-threatening as possible.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

i agree with everything about, but would like to add:

I see the biggest issue here is you never pay the card off in full, you just make a payment and max it back out... it looks like you are basically financing your life with this card and making payments when you have the funds available, and then maxing it out again. so from the lenders prosprective what happens when the pay checks stop coming in?? they are on the hook for the full amount of the card charged off

do you have any cash on hand at all? do you have any other cards?

why not just use the cash you have or other cards until you PIF this one and then start using it again?

TheConductor wrote:

I can understand any financial institution that loans someone money is taking a risk, but if I am such a risk, why did they increase my credit line from 1700 to 3500 after nine months of use. I must have been doing something right.

Just because you were doing something right, that doesn't mean you were doing everything right.

Sometimes a pretty girl goes home with a guy she met at a bar, even though he has bad garlic breath from the Olive Garden dinner he had earlier, because he's cute and has a nice smile and wasn't rude to her friends. That doesn't make him the world's greatest seducer, it just means he ticked enough positive boxes for her to look the other way in the short term.

It also doesn't mean she won't kick him out of bed if he didn't bring a condom. She'll take a small risk on the bad breath, but not THAT big a risk.

What I am sure they expected is that once they gave you the CLI, your spending would settle down and fit within what they calculated to be a reasonable level well below your CL. Now that instead you are continuing to push the envelope, they are looking at your past BK and going "Hmm...this guy seems to be repeating the spending patterns that got him into BK in the first place."

You seem to be in an awful hurry to be doing everything right. But you are recovering from a bankruptcy and there is no quick fix for that. It's a slow healing process that will require patience and discipline.

I was perplexed by the fact that you are cranking so much money through an Apple Financing card, which has no rewards apart from the 0% on Apple purchases. Then I realized why you are doing it: I suspect you are laboring under the misapprehension that the more money you crank through the card, the more profit they make. And the more profit they make, the faster they will upgrade you to better limits.

There's a fallacy in that logic, though, because their whole business is one of volatility. The volatility is in the fact that they are effectively in the business of making unsecured loans, over and over. They maximize their profits not by loaning as much money as possible, but by loaning as much money as possible with as little risk as possible. The marriage of the two principles is what matters - neither can stand alone.

If, say, since your CLI and for the next 6 months or so, you were to crank no more than $1700 per month through that card, and PIF with a single payment each month, then I am betting your next CLI at that point could be to a nice 8k, 9k, or even 10k.

If you continue in the way you are going, however, you may spend 2 or 3 times as much over the same 6 months, but that spend will come with all the signs of volatility. They will be wary of you, and if you get another CLI at all it is likely to be modest and disappointing.

There's a reason folks on this board often compare creditors to sleeping bears or lions. The way to behave with them is tread lightly and seem as non-threatening as possible.

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION: All FICO® Score products made available on myFICO.com include a FICO® Score 8, along with additional FICO® Score versions. Your lender or insurer may use a different FICO® Score than the versions you receive from myFICO, or another type of credit score altogether. Learn more

FICO, myFICO, Score Watch, The score lenders use, and The Score That Matters are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation. Equifax Credit Report is a trademark of Equifax, Inc. and its affiliated companies. Many factors affect your FICO Score and the interest rates you may receive. Fair Isaac is not a credit repair organization as defined under federal or state law, including the Credit Repair Organizations Act. Fair Isaac does not provide "credit repair" services or advice or assistance regarding "rebuilding" or "improving" your credit record, credit history or credit rating. FTC's website on credit.